This invention relates to conversion of bag-like containers of a plant-growth nutrient, such as animal manure, compost, and/or peat or the like, into starter or even season-long xe2x80x9cmini-gardensxe2x80x9d.
Gardeners are known to have used readily portable containers of nutrient material as an accessory to, or even a substitute for, an in-ground garden of individual and/or multiple plants, especially in confined locations. Some such containers may be characterized properly as textile xe2x80x9cbagsxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9csacksxe2x80x9d or as paper xe2x80x9csacksxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ccartonsxe2x80x9d. Recently similar containers made of polymeric filaments or film have been so characterized and so utilized. Such containers are customarily called xe2x80x9cbagsxe2x80x9d here, regardless of their composition.
Usually such a container (regardless of what it is called) is laid flat, and slits are opened in its uppermost horizontal surface to permit seeds or seedlings to be planted therein by insertion through the slits. Slits may be made in the lowermost surface of the container to allow excess water to flow down and out therefrom.
Pertinent examples found in U.S. patents include Towning, U.S. Pat. No. 4,299,056, for Self-Watering Plant Growing Bag; Krueger, U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,783, for Apparatus and Process for Growing Plants; and Ito, et al, for Plant-Growing System and Plant-Growing Method. Principal concerns of these inventors centered primarily upon water control, and only secondarily upon temperature control, to establish and to maintain favorable growing conditions for plants started or retained therein, and they disclose various bag accessory and component materials.
The present inventor appreciates the advances made by his noted predecessors, but he believes that his own ingenuity has resulted in optimally combined structural features and functional procedures not suggested by the noted inventors, or otherwise in the prior art.
In particular, he optimizes control of moisture and temperature differently, while providing an improved container of relatively simpler construction, dedicated to the practice of this invention.
A private season-long experiment succeeded in raising beans, corn, cucumbers, muskmelon, squash, and tomatoes satisfactorily by means of the mini-garden bag of this invention, whose extent of use depends primarily upon the space available, as other variables are subjected to control by the grower to a remarkably large extent.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a plant nutrient bag adapted to grow plants in various climatic conditions.
Another object of this invention is to enable annual plants to be raised in, and harvested from, such bags without transplantation.
A further object of the invention is to enable adjustment of internal temperature, as well as moisture, so as to plan ahead and compensate for climatic change, as well as for current conditions,
These objects are attained with bags containing suitable plant nutrients, preferably pre-fertilized and pH-adjusted, and provided with readily slittable locations in the upper and lower surfaces of the bag, as prospective insertion sites for seeds or seedlings in the upper surface and as water drain locations in the lower surface. The bag also conveniently provides selectable light/dark surfaces enabling improved control over the moisture and temperature inside.
Other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and the accompanying illustrations of preferred embodiments of this invention.